STARKVILLE, Miss. – Researchers at Mississippi State Univ. (MSU) are working to control Salmonella and Campylobacter before the poultry products leave processing plants. Chander Sharma, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Poultry Science along with a team of MSU scientists, is researching the use of lauric arginate, an antimicrobial compound approved by the USDA, as a processing aid to help combat the pathogens.

Fairfield, New Jersey-based A&B Ingredients recently reported that its CytoGuard LA, lauric arginate product, yielded a 4-log reduction, or 99.99 percent, in reducing Salmonella in raw chicken parts. Lauric arignate is a naturally derived, antimicrobial compound made of lauric acid, L-arginine and ethanol. It is also known as ethyl lauroyl arginate and lauramide ethyl ester.


University scientists determined that “after test tube sampling of lauric arginate, as well as coating the outside of raw chicken, it was ‘very effective at destroying the bacteria.’”
According to MSU, “After seven days, researchers had achieved a 94-95 percent reduction of C. jejuni and Salmonella was reduced by 80-90 percent.”

Gil Bakal, A&B Ingredients’ managing director, notes that lauric arginate (LAE) is an effective food-grade antimicrobial based on the chemical Na-lauroyl-Larginine ethyl ester. “It is a unique antimicrobial compound that has been found to be effective at reducing pathogenic organisms in a wide range of food products.”